Over 1 million Volkswagen-made vehicles in UK affected by diesel emissions scandal

Volkswagen said it would tell customers how to get their cars corrected. Image: PA

Published:13:27Wednesday 30 September 2015

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More than one million vehicles in the UK are affected by the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, the company has said.

The German car-maker said it would inform customers how to get their vehicles “corrected in the near future”.

Number of affected vehicles in the UK per brand:

- Volkswagen cars 508,276

- Audi 393,450

- Seat: 76,773

- Skoda: 131,569

- Volkswagen commercial vehicles: 79,838

Volkswagen Group UK announced its plan to modify diesel vehicles with EA 189 engines.

It said that the details of affected cars would be released to retailers “in the coming days” while a “self-serve process” will be set up for customers to check if their vehicle needs a refit.

A VW statement read: “Step by step, affected customers will be contacted, with details of a process to get their vehicles corrected in the near future.

“In the meantime, all vehicles are technically safe and roadworthy.”

VW admitted that 11 million of its diesel vehicles worldwide were fitted with defeat device software which conned testers into believing their vehicles met environmental standards.

The Environmental Protection Agency said 482,000 of VW’s 2009-15 models in the US were fitted with the sophisticated software, which switches engines to a cleaner mode when they are undergoing official testing.

Once on the road the cars produced nitrogen oxide pollutants at up to 40 times the legal standard.

The Department for Transport has launched an investigation which will include retesting to compare laboratory results with real-world driving emissions.